The archaeologist dug feverishly in the pitiless sun of the ancient city of Bubastis located in the Delta region of Lower Egypt along the River Nile. He worked alone, the world of 1943 being a troubled place in which funding was not available for large-scale excavations.
"I know that it's here!," said Dr. Jones as the sweat ran down his brow. "It must be here, all of the ancient manuscripts agree!" Again and again Jones plunged his shovel into the ancient sands until finally the tip of his spade hit something. Jones dropped to his knees, clawing sand away from whatever hard object he had encountered with his fingers. Feverishly he unearthed and held aloft a small sarcophagus, pausing only briefly before removing its lid.
Jones peered inside the gilded box, squinting to see past a haze of what he thought was dust that obscured the small mumified figure within. The dust didn't settle, however, curiously rising from the box and streaming into a cloud which swirled above it. The motes of dust seemed possessed of a life all its own, some of them condensing and layering upon one another, eventually assuming the discernible shape...of a black cat! Remarkably, the feline hovered in the air in an upright position, his hind legs crossed before him, one foreleg held to his chest and the other touching the side of his head with a paw in a rather quizzical gesture. A dark aura surrounded the figure, unlike anything to be found in nature.
A voice telepathically entered the consciousness of Dr. Jones, commanding his attention. "Who has disturbed my slumber?," demanded the voice. The sound of swirling winds accompanied its presence.
Jones regarded the strange vision floating before him, its eyes bottomless silvery-white pools that threatened to draw him in. "I am Dr. Jones, archaeologist," he said weakly. "To whom am I speaking?," he added, his sense of wonder temporarily exceeding his fear.
The vision suspended before him appeared to cock its head slightly. "I am Naught," the cat answered telepathically. "Zero, a cipher, the eternal nothingness from which all was created."
"I must be dreaming," muttered Dr. Jones, "or I've gone mad! You can't be real...you're generated by the minds of men, an artificial representation of forces they couldn't understand!"
The swirling currents surrounding the dark cat seemed to expand and intensify in their movements, as if reflecting the growing agitation of the creature that they enveloped. "Heretic!," thundered a voice within the man's head. "Doubt you my existence, you pathetic, decaying bag of meat?"
The archaeologist felt himself lifted off the ground by a powerful wind that came out of nowhere, and held in an iron grip. Barely able to draw breath, the head of Dr. Jones filled with images in which he beheld the building of the pyramids, and the rise and fall of the ancient Egyptian empire. In a moment's time, he witnessed the labors of thousands of men, beheld terrible wars, and saw the awe and majesty of the Pharaoh's court.
The otherworldly feline then lowered the archaeologist to the ground, and his head was filled again with terrifying images of the future, and horrors in human history that were yet to come. When his visions were complete, Dr. Jones collapsed limply to the ground, overwhelmed by his supernatural experience.
"Time is but one of the roads that I travel," said the hovering black cat speaking within the head of Dr. Indiana Jones. "I have read your innermost thoughts, I know your motives and your heart," proclaimed the entity. "You do not seek to destroy the old ways, but to preserve them. I can work with you, mortal," he concluded.
His attention being focused on the otherworldly apparition, Dr. Jones had failed to notice the approach of a group of Nazi soldiers, part of expeditions sent by Himmler in quest of supernatural artifacts that it was felt would make Hitler's armies invincible. Jones turned slowly and raised his hands submissively as he heard the unmistakable sound of weapons being cocked.
"The renown Indiana Jones!," spoke their commander to the archaeologist. "You would seem to have made our work easy for us! What have you discovered to surrender to the Third Reich?"
"Nothing," replied Dr. Jones, continuing to keep his arms raised. "I have nothing for you," he added grimly.
"Do not toy with me, Dr. Jones!," warned the Nazi commander, his soldiers tightening their grip on their weapons. As they did so, desert winds began to swirl, driving stinging sands before them.
His hands still held aloft, Jones made eye contact with the Nazi commander. "I'm unarmed," he said, "and you have Nothing to be afraid of," he added as a swirling black vortex rose behind him, driving lashing sands around it. The desert seemed to come alive with an otherworldly spiritual energy, at the center of which was the shifting, changing image of a hovering cat. The creature phased in and out of clarity, existing simultaneously as it did in multiple times and dimensions. Blue sparks of electricity arced from the black vortex around the feline over its body.
"Shoot it!," shouted the Nazi commander above the now howling winds. As Dr. Jones took a dive to the desert floor, Nazi bullets whizzed above him, most hitting their target but passing harmlessly through it, leaving only puffs of displaced sand in their wake. The roiling currents of agitated air and ether seemed to intensify, as if reflecting the growing displeasure of the ancient entity at their midst.
"Fools!," thundered a powerful telepathic voice simultaneously within the heads of all those present. "Think you that you can raise arms of flesh against a spirit? Reap you all the penalty for your disrespect and insolence!," sentenced the black cat with a terrible finality.
With those words, Naught the cat seemed to gain in strength and energy, his black aura expanding and the motes of darkness within swirling with increased agitation. Tendrils of dark energy lashed out of the vortex, connecting with each Nazi soldier and causing them to twitch as if seizuring in the embrace of the angered entity. The formidable soldiers were swiftly drained of their life energy, withering within moments into dried husks before crumbling into dust that joined the desert sand and became indistinguishable from it.
The awestruck archaeologist stood humbly before the feline deity, realizing that his life was forfeit should he incur its displeasure. Again the hovering otherworldly cat communicated telepathically with him:
"Fear not, man of flesh," spoke the great cat almost reassuringly. "You are different from the others, and I thank you for awakening me from my long rest,. It was enjoyable to feed off your annoying enemies," he declared. "But I shall take my leave of you now. I have much catching up to do in a world which has moved on from what I knew. Perhaps our paths will cross again, mortal. Until that time...be well, and remember the old ways!"
With that, the Son of Bastet called Naught dissolved into energized air, and swept off to the East, part of the timeless land that had been a cradle of human civilization.
Fatigued and with his horizons expanded yet again, Dr. Jones would have Nothing to report to his university...for some things are best experienced rather than explained.